Defiant Spirits: The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven (and Tom Thomson)

In 1924 an exhibition in London of Canadian landscapes moved the renowned English critic C. Lewis Hind to celebrate them as “the most vital group of paintings produced since the war – indeed, this century”.  These landscapes of Canada’s northern lakes and rugged backwoods, painted in a boldly Post-Impressionist style, had been produced over the previous decade by the collective of Toronto-based painters known as the ‘Group of Seven’, whose aim was to forge a national school of landscape painting.  In this lecture Ross King will look at both the myths and the realities of how these painters – including their talismanic colleague Tom Thomson, who died in 1917 – stormed the conservative bastions of Canadian art to establish themselves on the international stage as practitioners of a distinctive avant-garde.

This is a live event in Cameron Hall; Ross King will be joining us online from his home in the UK. You do not need to pre-register to attend – just show up.

BIOGRAPHY:

Ross King is the bestselling author of books on Italian, French and Canadian art and history. Among his books are Brunelleschi’s Dome (2000), Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling (2002), The Judgment of Paris (Governor General’s Award, 2006), and Leonardo and The Last Supper (Governor General’s Award, 2012). He has also published two novels and a biography of Niccolò Machiavelli. In 2010, Ross was curator for the exhibition, “Defiant Spirits: The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven,” staged at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection – the exhibition, as well as this lecture both based on his book of the same title.  Ross is an active fundraiser for the arts and a passionate lecturer and tour guide. When not traveling for work or pleasure, he lives in the historic town of Woodstock, near Oxford, England, with his wife Melanie.